“Sam.”
“Well, Sam, I think I’ve just fell in love.” His state of disbelief now had him giggling. “Come on.”
We ran back through the forest at vampire speed, finding Jared waiting at the mouth of it. He seemed amused. Until the Pagori spoke.
“She’s like a nymph or something!” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she did it.”
The look on Jared’s face was priceless. “Green, are you saying she outran you?”
He nodded. “You should have seen her leap over the river, she completely cleared it!” He patted me on the back and then waltzed over to his comrades, telling them about the chase.
Whereas Green was dazed yet excited, Jared was dazed but irritated. The other blokes weren’t laughing anymore, but they were still looking at me oddly and whispering. Then I got extremely cheesed off when I heard one of them suggesting to another bloke that I must have given Green a blow job to get him to say I’d outran him. I stomped hard on his foot and shot him a scowl. He didn’t seem confident enough to scowl back. Were they all arsewipes?
The bloke with the shaven head who’d earlier assured me that I would not pass this tryout glared at me. “You sure you’re not a disguised Pagori vampire on crack?”
“Oh shut it, slap-head.”
He just chuckled.
“For the final stage, we’ll return inside.” Jared’s walk was filled with that much frustration that he was almost marching.
I knew as I entered the building and joined the line in front of Jared that my smugness must be apparent on my face because he was glowering madly at me. I snorted.
“The final stage,” he drawled. “Combat. This is where you get to use your gifts. In the legion we train to avoid up-close and personal combat as this only tires a vampire and leads to more injuries. Instead we like to rely mostly on our gifts, aiding us to attack from afar. For this stage the effectiveness of your gift will be just as important as your control of it. There are now only seven of you left. From what I have seen so far, I’m confident that the three spaces I have left to fill for the squad will be filled today. Which means four of you will be going home.”
Jared first matched up one of the two remaining Kejas with a Pagori for combat. “Your aim is to outmatch your opponent, not to kill or cause any harm that can’t be fixed by our self-healing.”
Contrary to mythology, vampires can be killed in lots of ways. A stab to the heart would do the trick purely because we need it beating just as much as we did as a human. We can also be bled out if our injuries are too extensive which leads to death. Being starved of blood for more than four weeks was another way to go. In addition, a lot of vampires have deadly gifts and these will just as effectively kill us as they would a human.
Both the Keja and the Pagori were good. They stayed clear of each other, as instructed. Their powers were impressive. Although the Keja was a conjurer and was materialising weapons, the Pagori could secrete smoke from his hands, making the room hazy and preventing the Keja from finding his target. As such, the Pagori seized a weapon on a bad throw and used it against the conjurer. Combat done and dusted.
Jared then paired up the other Keja with another of the Pagoris. The Keja was exhaling tiny thorns which I guessed were poisonous to some degree however seen as his opponent had the power to deflect or negate anything thrown at him with just the wave of his hand, the thorns simply hit the floor each time. As such, I never got to see what effect exactly the thorns could have. Jared eventually stopped the duel seen as they were both as good as the other.
The last two Pagoris were next – one being the annoying but cute slap-head. He winked at me before confidently heading to the Northern point of the building. And God his gift was extraordinary, which meant that the whole thing was over in seconds. He had the power to cause temporary sensory paralysis, which meant his opponent was rendered blind, deaf and mute. As such, he was shooting his superhuman breath blindly – literally.
I was next. And I lacked an opponent.
Jared sighed and glared at me with narrowed eyes. I half expected him to say ‘I’m afraid there’s no one to duel with you, you’ll have to run along home’. But instead he started removing his jacket.
“I guess I’ll have to be your duelling partner,” he sighed.
Chapter Two
(Sam)
A giggle almost choked me. “You’re joking, right?”
He arched his brow and gave me a ‘are you scared?’ look. I hadn’t been giggling with nerves or fear, I just couldn’t believe my luck. Even if it turned out that the bloke had the most amazing gift in the history of the universe and beat me within a second, I’d still be a happy girl just to get one shot in.
He positioned himself at the Northern point while I took the Southern. Still he was mistaking my giddiness for nervousness. “I already told you there’re no points for being a pretty girl. You really should’ve run along home. I tell you what, I’ll give you one more chance to leave with your pride still intact.”
“And while I appreciate the warning, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ignore it.”
“Fine then. We duel until one of us is floored.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Well if you really must embarrass yourself...” Although he made the movement so fast that it was a blur, my mind registered his left hand rise and his fingers twitch and admired as beautiful blue sparks of electricity came predatorily toward me. But I didn’t move out of the way. The sparks invaded my body with such aggression that I was suddenly zooming backwards and landed awkwardly on my back. God it hurt. Like a burning hot sizzling fire spreading through my veins. It took a lot for me not to cry out.
Seconds later I bounced to my feet, feeling a little frazzled and slightly unsteady. Jared was laughing like a giddy kid in a fairground.
“Thanks for that,” I said.
“For putting you on your ass?”
“No. For this.” In a movement faster than his I expelled the sizzling energy from my body, sending blue electric sparks identical to his soaring at him. Although he made a dive to the right, his shoulder was briefly caught.
“What the hell?” he exclaimed. He then watched carefully as my fingers prickled at the air around me, drawing and manipulating energy to manifest my favourite weapon. A silvery-blue energy whip materialised in my hand.
“You’re a Feeder,” Jared realised.
“And you’re electrokinetic.”
He seemed to be talking more to himself as he added, “You can feed on the energy around you; absorb it and control it. Very rare.”
“Again let me thank you for allowing me to absorb that power of yours. I have to say, I prefer this though.” I flicked my whip in his direction, teasingly. “I can shape the energy into lots of different weapons. Bolts, beams, balls, but I like the whip best. It’s more fun.”
“It is,” he agreed with a nervous smile. “But it’s not going to do you much good against high voltage electricity.”
I snorted. “As you Americans say – duh! You’re forgetting that I can practice electrokinesis now as well.”
“So you’re planning on defeating me by using my own power against me? Sounds a little like cheating.”
“Oh I’ve no time for pretty sparks. I can do something much more interesting than that.”
“Oh yeah?” Doubtful, his expression said.
“Yeah,” I said as I let the whip fade away. “Feeding on energy means that I can tap into the natural energies, which means...I can do this.” I absorbed more energy into my palms and then sharply released it as a blast of air. The gust of wind swept him up like he was no more than a leaf on the ground and sent him crashing into the wall behind him. “By natural energies, I meant the classical elements; air, water, fire and earth.”